


A Scientist's Pride

by MissAquilah



Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22595278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissAquilah/pseuds/MissAquilah
Summary: Phineas spent decades researching for a way to save the Hope's colonists. With The Captain being the first success, would it be wrong to assume that Phineas would be biased to favor them?
Relationships: The Captain/Phineas Welles
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	A Scientist's Pride

**Author's Note:**

> I keep telling myself I'm not going to write anymore but here I am still writing so here you go! Its from Phineas' POV.

I’m running down a long corridor, it’s narrow, thin, and no matter how far I go it seems to have no end. I feel I’ve been here before, running like this. This hallway that has infinite doors on both sides but…all the doors are always locked and some are even broken. Blood drips from out of the locks and oozes from between the hinges. Loud screams seep from behind the cold metal, the cacophonous wails echo around me, mocking me…taunting me. It’s a horrid sight and a ghastly sound, almost too much to bear. Old dim lights swing from the ceiling, a slight slow squeak resonates from the rusting fixtures. It would seem minuscule in comparison to the deafening howls of agony, but I can still hear it, the swing and the squeak in between the screams. There’s a keypad next to every door, but no matter what combination of numbers I attempt, they never work.  
My lungs burn from running for so long, but I must continue, I must find a way to open these prisons, to free those suffering inside. The further down the hallway I trek, the colder the air feels, the louder the screams get, the heavier my legs feels. I…must continue…but it’s becoming insufferable.  
The cries grow louder and louder, “Why?” they say. “Why did you do you this to us??? Why did you break our locks???”  
I cover my ears in an attempt to mute out the sounds, “Help us!” they scream “HELP US!”

“I’m sorry…” I whisper. “I know it’s my fault and I’m sorry.”  
My progress begins to slow as my body hits its limit. I fall to my knees and shut my eyes. Even with my ears plugged, I still cannot block out the harshness around me. The screaming, the swing, the squeeeeak. The screaming, the swing, the squeeeeak. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry but there’s nothing else I can do. I have to keep going, I MUST keep going!” I try to stand but my legs won’t move. 

“But aren’t you tired?”

Suddenly a clear indiscernible voice, cutting through all the discord. My head shoots up, looking around for the origin. 

“You’re exhausted aren’t you? Don’t you want to take a break?” I’ve heard this somewhere before.

I look in every possible direction but see nothing, no one. Have I completely lost my mind? Has this madness finally overtaken me? That’s when I saw it, one of the doors…a little further ahead…it was…open. All this time here, again and again and again, never have I seen one of the doors open. My body feels heavy, the sounds of the screams are crippling, but I must investigate! This door was different from the rest; it was larger than the others, covered in chains and plastered with caution signs. I peer inside to get a preemptive look. The room was dark and empty aside from a lone plush red chair at the center and a single bright light hanging from the ceiling. It wasn’t what I expected to find and I was wary to enter as I did not know what I would encounter; but the chaos in the corridor was too much for me, and I needed an escape from it, even if it were only for a moment. As I made my way into the space, I noticed that I could no longer hear the maelstrom from outside, a blissful silence that I had so longed for. I ran my fingers over the armchair, it was made from a very soft but resilient textile, an item far more luxurious then I would ever own. I couldn’t help but relax myself into it, I just needed a little rest to catch my breath. The silky smooth fabric brushed lightly against my skin, drawing me in with it’s warm comforting sensation. 

“My, this chair IS quite warm, I haven’t felt something like this in…ever! I could almost fall asleep!” I’ll admit that this was far more enjoyable than I anticipated. “Ahhhhh…..alright, I’ve rested, now it is time again to get back to work.”

“You’re leaving already?” the same smooth voice from before resurfaced, “but  
you just got here?”

“I know, but I cannot waste precious time...” I don’t know what compelled me to reply to  
the disembodied voice, perhaps because it was the only other existence besides mine that wasn’t screaming bloody murder so I…continued. “...there’s too much work to be done.”

“But what’s the rush? You already found the master key, and it’s not going anywhere. Can’t you just take it easy a little longer?” 

“Master key? What are you…” I felt my hands through my pockets, sifting through all the trinkets and junk I keep in them. Suddenly I pull a keycard out of my pocket. I’m sure this wasn’t here before, I’m sure I checked…but that was irrelevant, it was irrelevant because I can now open the doors. “I must go.” I move towards the exit, ready to continue with what needs to be done, but once I approach the entryway I begin to hear the echoes of the dissonant cries and I hesitate. ‘Come on Phineas, you can do this.’ I reassure myself.  
“You don’t have to go back out there right now. Give me your key and I can go open the doors for you.” The voice offered.  
“Nonsense. It’s horrible out there, you shouldn’t have to be subjected to those terrors. I couldn’t ask that of you.” I don’t know why I was saying this.  
“I don’t care about that, we already have the key so it’d be no problem for me.” The voice persisted.

“All the more reason I can handle this myself.”

“But I’m not even tired-”

“Why does it matter so much to you???” I questioned as I started to lose my patience.

“Because you ran all that way to get here and you’re the one who opened my door! You have already done so much; just let me do this for you!”

“I’m not arguing with you about this again Nora!” I stop after realizing what I had said and I pinch the bridge of my nose “I mean…I’m sorry, I just have a lot going on right now and you sounded just like...well that’s beside the point. Look, I broke some of the locks on those doors trying to open them so, I have to do this, I have to go fix this.” Those were my final words as I turned to leave.

*GRZZIUGZZWIRZZZDSK*

My head feels fuzzy…

*ZZZRIUXFHZVIRGBRWDGLZL*

The brisk cold air from the hallway rushes towards me. 

*WFiHZIWFHJKZZNRUIZGHIZKSQZZ*

But…I feel warmth behind me as well…

*ZZZZZEZRGIZHIEGLZZZXXZZZHLUYGFZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

“…then let me go with you...” 

My eyes swiftly shoot open and I find myself staring at the ceiling of my lab, my personal quarters to be specific. The large glass window that displays the beauty of the aether was a welcomed familiar sight. 

‘Another nightmare?’

I rub my hand across my forehead and brush away the precipitation that had collected. The sweat trickled down the sides of my face like beads dancing across a newly polished floor. Funny I say that, because I’m actually on the floor, right now. It’s cold, hard, and the only relief from its unforgivable discomfort is the dozens of pages of notes that are scattered beneath me.  
‘Blast, I must have fallen asleep while I was working. Unacceptable. I’m planning the revival of more of the Hope’s colonist tomorrow, it’s imperative that I finish with my preparations. There’s so much to do and so little time, I have to-’

*SNAG* 

The moment I move to sit up, I am instantly jerked back. I was so befuddled when I awoke that I had failed to notice the object weighing down my left side. It was…Nora, sound asleep, sprawled out on top of my left arm.

‘The Captain? What in Law’s name is she doing here?’

Oh, that’s right, I had forgotten, she insisted on coming to help me with the revival. I told her it wasn’t necessary for her to fly all the way here. She already has so much to do with managing the colony and I couldn’t ask her for more assistance then she’s already provided me. But per her usual manner, she decided to just stroll in late last night. The girl is no scientist, but her level of intelligence supersedes that of most in the colony, so I find her point of view to be very enlightening. We were discussing the viability of expediting the revival process so it wouldn’t take such a long time to complete. 

‘We must have fallen asleep by accident, I better wake her so we can get back on track.’ 

I attempt to free my arm from under her slumbering form but the girl just readjusts every time I move and it’s getting to be quite frustrating.

“Nora this is inappropriate. I want to start the revival process first thing tomorrow morning so they’ll be done by the evening and we still have a plethora of work to do and I haven’t even mixed the dimethyl sulfoxide with the other materials yet aaaaand she’s not even listening to me…”

-Silence-

*Sigh* I was not accustomed to being in a situation like this. Before this all happened, I never had visitors. Even now with some of the colonist’s awake, most stay on the Hope or work down on Terra 2. A few of the scientist do come to the Orbital lab to assist with continuing research, but none appear as frequently as Nora. 

‘Halcyon bows to its knees if this woman willed it, yet here she is, sleeping on my floor…and on me.’  
I don’t understand how she can sleep so soundly. I haven’t slept like that in…DECADES. 

In my boredom I can’t help but glance over and study her unconscious figure.  
‘A sliver of her upper right ear cartilage is missing, that’s new. I must remind myself to scold her about that later. -Note to self, scold Nora for recklessness- Just because she can’t feel it, doesn’t mean she should ignore it. Though I suppose it is my fault that she can’t feel sensation in that ear due to some MINOR errors I made while thawing her. Nonsense! It was all within acceptable margins of risk! A side effect like that pales in comparison to-’

Suddenly and viciously, my mind is flooded with visions of my deceased subjects. The tables-the blood-the grisly moment when their cell walls started to decay, followed up by the *drip drip drip* of their remains splattering on the floor. I’m overwhelmed with feelings of regret and shame. I can already anticipate what will happen next. The despair starts creeping up my throat, choking me, suffocating me. I get rushes like this from time to time. As much as I wish for them to stop, I know that I must grin and bear it. This was from my own doing, these scars from my past that incessantly disturb my peace. 

“How can I complain after everything I’ve done, this is exactly what I deserve, isn’t it?” So lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t even realized those words had escaped my lips.

*YAAAAAAWN* 

“Ok, well, you’re hogging all the blankets Phin.” Nora grumbled before rolling closer to me and subsequently falling back to sleep. There are no blankets, it’s just papers and the floor.

I take a deep breath, and try to gather my thoughts, running my hand through my unkempt hair. I glimpse over at Nora again and continue my analysis as a way to distract myself. Her breathing patterns appear even and stable. Good. Hair hasn’t spontaneously fallen out. Acceptable. 

‘Even with using my imperfect formula, Nora was revived with very few adverse effects.  
It’s surreal to think that I really accomplished what I had set out to do all those years ago.’

Prior to her resurrection I made so many mistakes, had so many failures, there were so many…deaths. I felt like I was drowning, a man lost at sea searching for a solution, grasping out for salvation. But that day, no…that moment, when she first opened her eyes, and her radiant red irises glistened in the bright overhead lights, it was like…a life preserver had been thrown to me. Even now, every time I’m reminded of my failures, Nora always barges in here, making her presence known, shoving her existence in my face, reminding me…reminding me of my success.

Before I knew it, I found myself drawing her form closer to myself, curling my arm around her back and caressing the back of her head. The warmth of her body is a sharp juxtaposition from when she was just a slab of half frozen meat on my lab table. I always knew that the Hope would be full of brilliant and talented individuals, but I never imagined that my efforts would bear fruit to someone as powerful as her. I never thought that the entity I pulled from out of that hibernation pod would grow to be someone that I lov- …value, on a more…personal level. The chaos and distress never ceases in my soul, but even if…for just this moment…I can hold this solace so close. Then perhaps I too can one day sleep as deep as she. Ah, I see the sandman has come back for me. I can feel the hints of lethargy decorating my consciousness. Slumber…zzz…is not a pastime…zzzz…that I normally welcome with open arms, but…perhaps…zzzzzzzz…just this once…


End file.
